bridge of communication...

the car and bike board have a love/hate relationship...they/we have a symbiotic relationship. we have one car board rider on the bike board but we do have other cats on the bike board willing to rock out some distance and/or weight. the money is better and in the slow days...keeps you rolling. when it's slow on the car board the dispatcher starts asking for bike jobs to dish to his drivers. it might not be that much money but it does keep them rolling...which in the end, both sides want to do. we even have a walker that has a foldable cart that can help out with very heavy packages and/or multiple boxes being delivered within the loop. some customers pay for a helper with certain jobs because of the amount of work being transported or the size of the order, which means i have to get a biker/walker that i am willing to lose for who knows how long...oh wells.

it's all fun and games until someone gets hurt. where this all goes wrong is when the boards are busy...we(bike board) just can't afford to have riders helping out the drivers because then we shoot ourselves in the foot. i know we all need to meet our percentages and we help each other but sometimes it just can't be done because we need to meet our percentages. i know that one package that the driver board needs help with is only two blocks from the bike zone but if i send him/her to go get it then i have to be willing to lose that biker for 10 to 15 minutes...what?! i know it sounds silly but so many things can happen...package might not be ready, the elevators are taking forever, the package cannot be found, and so on...then what? im out one biker on a silly package. also, those 10 to 15 minutes could be spent helping me and the rest of the crew clean up what we signed up for...the bike board.

sure i want to spread the love, especially if its paying car rates but sometimes, that driver board is on their own. when we are slammed on bike it is very, very rare that you hear the car side ask if we need help. they never check our board to see how backed up we are. me and the other dispatcher just keep to ourselves and get the work down with our crew. it doesn't quite work that way when the car side is stacked...they immediately start asking for help. no big deal...if we have our side under control. i think they don't quite understand that sometimes...we just can't afford to lose out on a few cats so that they can hit their percentages. who are they? we help out both the city and suburban boards...yes suburban. i have yet to send one of the bikers from this company to the suburbs but at my last company i had...ahem, andrew, ahem. we also get bikers to pull packages for the suburban side and meet drivers heading out with them...now i gotta lose that cat for x amount of time to meet up with the driver.

either way...it would be nice if once they would just glance over and see us struggling. me and the other dispatcher are constantly checking out the driver side to see what packages we can swipe. granted, the bike packages don't pay as much but that shouldn't matter much...we all need to hit our percentages. car never realizes we are struggling until they need help and are requesting it...

car...hey julio, got a biker?

j.dot...no man. don't you see my board? still playing catch up from the morning...sh*t, you got a driver?

...for a system based on communication there isn't much. not that we all don't rock the work out it's just frustrating for the bike side to come through and help out time and time again and get no love in return. no big deal(at least thats what i keep telling myself)...one day the bikers will shine and everyone will be praising us...peace.